


We Can't Have Nice Things

by Overthinkerwrites



Category: Street Fighter
Genre: Backstory, Consenting Adults, F/F, Femslash, Shaky relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 13:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9551939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overthinkerwrites/pseuds/Overthinkerwrites
Summary: Chun Li and Juri's relationship is complicated at best and a downright mess at worst.





	

“Hey, Xiang!” she heard a voice call to her.

Chun Li looked to her right, blinked, and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.  It had been a long day at the Hong Kong Branch office and she was ready to get home, put on some easy ready meal, and fall asleep.

There, sitting in the small eatery, say Juri Han, internationally wanted criminal and SIN Agent. Even if SIN was more or less defunct, that was not the issue at hand.

And, judging by the blush on her face and the table full of food, she was having a ball and was just starting to get drunk.

So, if she was ostensibly on the run, why do this? It baffled the Interpol agent as she fought through her confusion on what to do next.

Regardless, she walked up to Juri, moving underneath the flags of the entry way, kept her face uncomfortable as she asked, “you realize what I should be doing right now, right?”

Juri snorted. “Sure I do,” she tried to hide the slur that was beginning to creep into her voice, “but you gotta admit, this is a pretty nice place to celebrate, eh?”

Chun Li raised an eyebrow. “Celebrate? Celebrate what?”

Juri clicked her tongue and wagged her finger, which made Chun Li realize she was wearing an eyepatch and was no doubt bereft of the Fung Shui Engine. “Ah, ah.  There’s no point in telling what I’m celebrating unless you’re willing to join in.”

Chun Li’s eyes leveled, clearly unamused. “In that case, not interested.”

Sadly, the various savory smells of the spread Juri had in front of her made Chun Li’s stomach growl.  Loudly.

She looked to her abdomen. “Traitor,” she mumbled.

“Come on, now,” Juri insisted and gestured to the meal, “there’s enough for us both.  I was hoping you’d show up anyway.  Wouldn’t want it with anyone else.”

Chun Li was tired, she was famished and frankly, if she wasn’t so exhausted from the day’s labor, she would have refused right then and there.  But her hunger and her exhaustion overrode everything else and internally threw caution to the wind while screaming, ‘I’m hungry! And those 2 Minute Meal packs are disgusting!“

With a sigh, she walked to the other side of the table, placed her satchel on the second bench and took a seat.

"There we go!” Juri clapped happily. “See? That wasn’t so hard!”

Before Chun Li could make it abundantly clear her attendance was under protest, Juri turned and loudly announced, in surprisingly fluent Mandarin, for more food and drink for them.

“Go on,” Juri offered as she took a bowl of friend rice and began to dig in, “you’re no good on an empty stomach.  And the drinks won’t be far behind.”

Chun Li was half ready to protest when she took in another whiff of the sweet pork, swiped a pair of chop sticks, piled on the rice and dug in.

*

By all rights, she shouldn’t have started drinking, as she was not a heavy  drinker, but damn did it taste good with the food.

Juri was a pile of giggles and occasional hiccups by the time most of the spread was consumed.

“So,” Chun Li asked, trying to get through the alchohol in her system, “you still haven’t told me what we’re celebrating.”

“Ah! Yes,” Juri perked up and poured herself another cup, “this is the celebration of Shadowloo’s and SIN’s dissolution and my revenge.”

The blatant declaration caught Chun Li off guard. While Shadowloo and SIN were, for all intents and purposes, gone, there was nothing to say they couldn’t return.  After all, Chun Li had tried, multiple times, to get it shuttered down to nothing, but Bison always seemed to have another back up facilitiy with another round of investors, and manpower that seemed to drove her to madness.

“So, despite my status as your nemesis,” Juri continued with a chuckle, “I have no real reason to fight you. Run, sure, but not fight. Got a bunch of weeds to stamp out on a regular basis, some bounties to collect on, underground street fights to infiltrate, you know. The little things that keep a girl happy.”

Chun Li rolled her eyes. She probably didn’t need to go into the spiel that just because SIN was gone, she wasn’t exactly clear when it came to the laws she broke, the contraband she smuggled, and the people she murdered.

“Happy…” Juri’s enthusiasm quickly evaporated as she looked into her cup, “…I still remember the last time I was really happy. Not so much, these days.”

Chun Li noticed and continued to listen, even though she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what she was going to hear.

“I was eighteen. About to graduate high school, just won a tae kwon do championship, had an athletics and a linguistic scholarship in line for collage in Seoul,” she took a sip, more thoughtful this time, “so many dreams. So many years ago.”

Chun Li waited for the explosion of anger.  She read Han’s file. Just after those events, if she remembered the dates right, that was when it all went wrong. Her parents and younger brother were all killed and she nearly with them in an assasination attempt that left her bedridden for half a year.

When she had finally been discharged, she vanished for about ten years. Interpol’s information networks were able to get a fuzzy idea what happened when she resurfaced as a hitman; she had found her father’s old file correspondence, noting he was going after Shadowloo in the Korean government, only to get taken out by a hit squad. She had used that information to go underground and join up with a Shadowloo subsidiary; SIN. 

If Chun Li had to wager a guess, Han was about thirty-four, maybe thirty-five at this point? Not as long as the grudges she herself carried, but long enough. 

Uncharacteristically, she smiled sadly as she continued, “Jun wanted to be an architect. He also liked reading and writing poetry. He always came to me with some of the things he wrote because he was afraid he’d never live it down if his classmates ever saw them.”

A sniff broke her from her thinking to see Juri wiping something from her good eye. “Why, Xiang?” she asked, desperate for an answer, “why’d he have to die? Why’d my parents have to die?”

Chun Li looked into her own cup, trying to discern an answer, but only finding the same disappointment when she remembered her own father’s passing. Perhaps, against her better judgment, she lowered her guard slightly as she closed her eyes.

“I wonder the same thing. Everyday.”

“You still have your mom, though.  Don’t you?” Juri asked, curious, and slightly jealous by the looks of it. Chun Li found it strange, and quite unnerving, that Shadowloo and SIN knew so much about her.  She supposed it was why she was so relentless in trying to take them down.

Regardless, she looked away and stumbled an answer. “We… we don’t talk much.”

By not much, she meant not at all. It had been, what, a decade, maybe eleven years since they last spoke?

Ever since her father died, the Xiang family had fallen apart immediately. There were angry shouts, bitter recriminations, and the instant Chun Li had become of age, she left and joined the Hong Kong police, if just to get away from her mother.

After some years on the force and her subsequent jumping on to Interpol, she and her mother began to speak again, though on limited terms, due to the nature of the job she had taken since she was in her early twenties and had lasted well into her fourties.

She sighed openly, wondering if it was time to give her a call, if she was still willing to listen, anyway.

Juri had been staring at her the whole time, in a combination of understanding, jealousy, and sorrow. It was a bit uncanny to see such complex emtions from someone whose only interactions was hand to hand combat.

“How about this,” Juri offered with a raised cup, “to our families. Broken and shattered as they may be.”

Chun Li looked up to her, then back to her drink, then, slowly raised her own. “To our families.”

A small, but rueful, smile returned on Juri’s face as they taped their cups and took another drink.

“So, up for another round?”

*

With both of their satchels in hand, both Chun Li and Juri stumbled into the former’s apartment. It was spacious and nicely decorated enough, though, barely lived in.

Both of them were failing to hold in their laughter, as the drinks had left them good and drunk.

“Oh wow,” Juri exclaimed a she saw the skyline through the window, “nice place you got here! Bet you got everyone wanting to come home with you just to see the view, right?”

Chun Li snorted loudly as she placed her satchel on the ground. She was tired, sloshed, and frankly past caring about the fact she had a wanted criminal in her apartment.

“Drunk honesty?” Chun Li fought to get a coherent string of thought in her words, “even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t know the first thing on how to date anyone.  I just have too much work to do.”

Juri looked hurt, even insulted a little. “Are you kidding?! You’re a damn teenage boy’s wet dream.”

Chun Li gave her an annoyed look. “I’m not so sure that’s a compliment.”

“Hear me out, though,” Juri continued as she wobbled to and fro, “killer thighs that can crush a man’s head? One hell of a rack? A Wu Shu master? Damn, they should make a video game character based off of you.  You’d make millions!”

Chun Li threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, I’m sure I’d be the perfect subject for some otaku’s obsession when I’m pushing fifty? No thanks.  I got work to do.”

“That’s… that’s sad, Xiang,” Juri said, her humor vanishing again,“you’re beautiful. You’re strong. Admirable, even. Anyone’d be honored to be close to you. Hell, knowing you’s a good thing.”

Chun Li was caught off guard once again.  Sure, Juri made no secret of her orientation, however, her pronouncement had a certain sense of honesty and genuineness that made the interpol agent at a loss for words.  

She then shook her head. “No. No they wouldn’t,” she then turned and walked to her bedroom to change.

She had tried. How did she ever try. However, her job was always so demanding that the last time she had attempted a relationship with a man, or anyone for that matter, he had broke it off because he was correct in assuming that everything was second when it came to her job.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Juri growled and stomped after her.  "You’re not getting off that easy!“

"Juri, do you mind?” Chun Li tried, and failed, to get rid of her guest, “it’s late and if I want to still have a job tomorrow, I need what little rest I can get with the hangover I’m going to have.”

Juri folded her arms and cocked her hips  defiantly and Chun Li’s frown grew larger as her self-control started to evaporate.

“Juri Han, is there a reason why you came here? Followed me home?!” she was ready to forcefully send the former Shadowloo agent out on her ass if needs be since she was too far gone to even try and arrest her.

Juri fought to keep her breath under control as she let her arms fall to her side, walked up to her, possibly more scared than she ever had been, reached up and kissed her. Sloppily. Awkwardly. Almost embarrassingly.

However, Chun Li would have lied if she said it didn’t feel nice. It was why she quickly, and eagerly reciprocated, she didn’t know the reason behind it

Through her inebriation, she could feel herself pulling Juri closer to her by her waist, then Juri draping her arms over Chun Li’s shoulders.

They kissed again.  And again. It was still sloppy. It was still awkward. Frankly, Chun Li, if she was telling the truth, had no idea if this was how it was even done, since she had never gotten that far before with anyone.

When they were done, though, Juri stepped back a bit, releaseing Chun Li’s grip on her somwhat, before she reached up and undid her top, letting it fall to the floor.

“I want you,” she whispered, trying to keep her confience up, however, the blush in her face and accelerated breathing betrayed her bravado, “more than anything.”

Chun Li had to admit, Juri Han kept herself in excellent physical condition. Abs so cut one could cut through paper. An athlete’s body kept in a good state from years of training.

Yet, more than that, she felt the pangs of something stirring that she had long suppressed, finally coming to life after decades of inactivity. Desire? Was that what it was? Desire for intimacy? A desire for sex?  She wasn’t sure, but she was starting to see the appeal of the idea of being so close to someone. Even if it was Juri Han.

“I want you to fuck me,” she wheezed, eagerly, which returned her to reality.

Chun Li, though her years of training, fighting, and work had refined her self-control, which she often prided herself on.

Now, though? She was tired, she was arounsed, she was smashed. The perfect storm of circumstances that made her say, on the inside, 'fuck it.’  She would have also given Master Gen the finger while she was at it and be subsequently punished for it, but she didn’t care anymore.

With no warning, she shoved Juri onto her bed and before the latter could react, Chun Li crawled over her and answered with a much desire as she could muster, “I think I can do that.”

Juri’s face lit up with excitement, eager to witness the beast of a woman she always hoped to find as she threw her arms up again, pulled Chun Li close and kissed her again

*

The first rays of the sun peeked over the mountains in the east as Chun Li stirred. Her head felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to it.  Both ends.

On her side, she realized there was a pair of arms around her waist and a warm body pressed against her back.

Aside from the hangover, it felt nice. Then she remembed what happened last night and grew tense.

Did she really…? A happy moan from Juri, who was still fast asleep, confirmed her fears.

She sighed deeply.

Gingerly, she pulled herself out of Juri’s grip, trying not to wake her, and let her feet hang over the side of the bed. With her hands on her knees, thoughts raced through her head at a mile a second.

She enjoyed what happened last night.  She really did. That included her hair getting tangled when she tried to take off her own undergarments, the back of her head hitting the headboard, both of their pairs of legs getting tangled as well, which resulted in them tumbling off the bed.

After a rustle of fabrics behind her, Juri’s hands weaved up and down her back, lightly caressing, almost teasing, the muscles on her back before they wrapped around her waist.

Chun Li didn’t resist as Juri kissed her way up her spine and eventually sat her head on her right shoulder with a contented sigh.

“Morning, lover,” Juri whispered happily.

She hummed a response.

“For someone that doesn’t really have any experience, you handled yourself like a pro, last night,” Juri noted as she crawled up closer, enjoying the warmth between them, “so, what now?”

Chun Li looked down to her… lover, if she could call her that and her logic and self-discipline took control again.

She let out a deepth breath, gathering her thoughts before answering.

“The only things I can do; I am going to clean myself up, shower, have breakfast, dress for work, and once I get to work, turn in my resignation.”

Juri nodded at each item on the list until she paused mid nod at the last word. “Wait, what?”

“Need I remind you what happened last night?”

“You fuck like a tiger?” Juri smirked.

Chun Li wasn’t about to fall for the bait.  "In case you are not aware, your criminal record is still active, and last time I checked, me, an Interpol Officer, having sexual relations with said criminal is genrally frowned upon for good reason.“

The smirk vanished. "Wait… you’re really going to resign just because you slept with me?”

“Juri, you’re not dense, so drop it,” Chun Li grumbled as she shook her head, “decades of work.  Gone. Just like that.”

Now it was Juri’s turn to act annoyed. “Really?  You’re going to resign over a technicality?”

“What?”

“You didn’t sleep with Juri Han.  Juri Han is a wanted criminal,” she said as a matter of factly, “Seung Kim, on the other hand, is a freelance translator who met a lovely off-duty Interpol officer for food and drink and ended up having one of the best nights of her life.”

Chun Li paused at the last statement, but put it aside for now. “Again, what?”

Juri rolled her eye. “Oh, fine.  Hold on.”

Juri, stark naked, crawled off to the adjacent side of the bed, walked to her pile of clothes and bent over, perhaps intentionally, to show her backside to her lover.

Chun Li’s gaze went from that… obvious display, to her hand, where she remembered, more vividly than she thought, how she had grasped each of those cheeks, greedily, and with the other pulling back a fist full of hair from behind Juri, growling in her ear, 'Mine!’ over and over. And Juri certainly wasn’t panting like, and she hated the phrase, a bitch in heat.

Juri came back and sat beside her on the bed, with several cards in her possession.

“Minji Cho?” she read another passport. “Sujin Yi? Jihye Song?” several more passports with different names and their own picture, vital statistics, and so on.

“Aren’t you risking arrest by showing me these?” she asked with leveled eyes.

“Sure, but I rather that happen than you lose your job because of what we did,” she answered as she put her hand on Chun Li’s shoulder and rested her head atop that.

“…I have no idea… I…” she tried to retort, but the answer died in her throat.

Granted, Juri Han had vanished when Shadowloo and SIN had crumbled.  And even then, the sightings of her were innocuous.

Juri sighed. “It’s odd of me to ask this, Xiang, but please; keep doing your job.”

Chun Li raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she continued.

“When I joined SIN, I was angry. I wanted to break this world. Now that what I was angry at is no longer around… I’m not sure what else I want to do. Sure, there’s stomping out the remnants, but really… is this all there is?”

Chun Li was going to regret asking this, but considering all that had happened, it was probably going to be the least of her problems.

“You could always work with us,” she offered. “There have been situations where individuals have been able to… work off their criminal records by being informants, moles, and the like.”

The smile on Juri’s face returned. “Only if I get to work with you.”

Chun Li looked back at her for a moment. “I don’t think my superiors would be too happy to hear what’s become of you and I.”

Juri snickered. “Yeah. Jealous old farts wouldn’t be able to get any action without paying big lumps of cash.”

“Juri…”

“Fine, fine,” she answered before she sat close to Chun Li, who, almost instinctively, wrapped her arm around Juri’s waist.

“This is nice,” Juri whispered, almost ready to fall back to sleep against her.

Experimentally, Chun Li then leaned hear head against the top of Juri’s and for a moment, she was inclined to agree.

But who was she kidding?

This was not going to last.

Even if Juri would completely turn her life around, her criminal record would haunt her for the rest of her life.

She couldn’t say it out loud, but Chun Li didn’t want that to happen.

“I should get ready,” she whispered reluctantly.

She wanted to stay here, truth be told. Stay here, where it was warm.

It was nice.

“Alright,” Juri whispered back, aware of what had to happen. So, she stood up, with Chun Li’s hand in hers, which brought the latter to her feet willingly.

“Come on, while we got the time, I want to show you a few more moves we didn’t get a chance to do last night for… obvious reasons,” she noted with a smirk.

Resigned, Chun Li matched her smile half-heartedly. “Such as?”

“Cunnilingus. Or, to put it more bluntly, uh, 'eating out’.”

*

Chun Li, leaning against the clear wall of the elevator going to her floor on the Skyscraper the Interpol branch was located in, let loose a quiet sigh.

A part of her said she should have arrested Juri when she had the chance. The other part, now a raging nymphmaniac that had somehow come to life, used every bit of logic as to why she shouldn’t have. It had already made plans to look for certain 'literature’ that Chun Li normally wouldn’t give any thought to.

Oh well. She’d regret not arresting her today and would try again next time they’d meet once the buzz wore off.

A beep from her officer’s pocket caught her attention as she quickly pulled her cell phone  out to find out she had a message to her private phone. Which was slightly annoying, since she did not have it as often as her work phone.

'Hey, Xiang. Heading to Thailand. Got some work there and a possible Shadowloo cell there. Will be there for the next month.’

She blinked when she saw not one, not two, but several photo’s being sent to her phone from an unknown number.

The first one made her frown, her eyes narrow, and her anger rise.

It was Juri, on her bed, while Chun Li was getting ready for work, no doubt, in a pose that could only be described as lewd. The half dozen pictures had the same theme and Chun Li leveled her mouth in frustration when she saw the last picture with her holding a sheet of paper with what may as well had been her number. Immediately, another text came.

'Call me, Lover.“

She started to smoulder and would have deleted them all right then and here had the elevator pinged that it was her floor. She closed her phone and placed it back in her pocket casually as Zhao, another Interpol officer entered as she was about to exit.

"Morning, Xiang. Something wrong?” he asked innocuously.

Chun Li thought for a moment before she huffed. “No, Zhao.  Everything’s wrong. So wrong, in fact, I’m going to request a vacation.”

Zhao blinked. “Wow.  Chun Li Xiang? Asking for a vacation? Will wonders never cease.”

She shot him an annoyed eye before she walked out of the elevator.

Her frown returned in force as she skulked to her superior’s office.

She was going to get some time off, then, book a plane to Thailand, hunt down Juri, and arrest her.

She then reconsidered after her thoughts went back to those pictures. She was going to delete them… just not yet.

She was going find Juri, lure her to somewhere private, fuck her brains out, THEN (maybe) arrest her.

**Author's Note:**

> Chun Li is, according to her official bio, 48.  
> Juri's age is not listed, frustratingly, so, I've figured she's 35, give or take a year. 
> 
> So there.


End file.
